In the Sydney suburb of Dulwich Hill lies Wilga Avenue, a street where neighbours have joined together to plant fruits and veggies in their front gardens and verges that line the street.

Not only does this provide fresh produce for the residents, but brings a greater sense of community connectedness to the street. People are spending much more time in the street, working on and enjoying the gardens, along with the increased opportunities for interaction with neighbours.

Wilga Avenue residents entered and won the ‘Sustainability Drive’ state wide competition, run by an energy company, for which they created the video below about their street. They won solar panels for every house in the street!

For anyone serious about learning all the ins and outs of permaculture, this 10 week course would be ideal!

Run 3 times a year, with participation from Geoff Lawton himself, this fully catered course (vegetarian menu available) covers many aspects of permaculture, with both classroom lessons and ample hands-on practical experience.

An area for camping is available, with some raised tent platforms, composting toilet and a rocket stove heated shower.

Although the price is fairly steep, the experience you will get is invaluable!

Participants come from all over the world to do this course. The video below introduces us to some of the people who have done it and a bit of a look at what you might expect.

In the Adelaide area of Elizabeth Grove, South Australia, are 4 connected backyards in which an abundance of fruits and veggies are grown and shared by the residents of the properties.

Boasting over 300 varieties of fruits and all sorts of vegetables, the gardens are managed on organic and permaculture principles.

The garden is also part of the Open Garden’s Scheme, as well as being available for people to tour at other times. There is a variety of plants available for sale cheaply in their nursery, the proceeds of which go to help with the ongoing costs of the garden.

Currently (May 2013- expected for a few months) the garden has an excess of spinach, which is available free to anyone who lives nearby. You can contact them on their Facebook page below.

They also are grateful for any donations of good condition pots, of varying sizes, to use in their nursery.

In the future, they also hope to run various workshops for the community, so keep a lookout for more info on that.

Todmorden, West Yorkshire, is leading the way in becoming more self sufficient by using pockets of land all over town to grow fruit and veggies, which are then freely available to anyone who wants to harvest and use them. There idea is to be inclusive, with a motto of ‘If you eat, you’re in!” The original plan was to use a unifying ‘language’ that cuts across age, income and culture- and the answer was food!

There’s 70 plots for the picking- broccoli at the train station; rosemary, thyme, mint and fennel near the health centre; apples, raspberries, apricots along the canal towpath; peas and beans outside the college; blackcurrants, redcurrants and strawberries by the doctor’s surgery and cherries in the supermarket car park, to name a few.

Now called the Incredible Edible movement, this principle has spread internationally, with many groups doing the same thing locally.